Sweet science may yet be seen as barbarism
As we undertand more about concussion the less we can justify the sport, writes Matt Dickinson.
A FEW days ago, Matt Ridley wrote on the comment pages of the Times newspaper about a time, perhaps in the not so distant future, when eating meat will be widely recognised as barbaric. I sometimes wonder the same about boxing, and especially in a week such as this.
This morning, NZ time, I will take a seat at Wembley Stadium for what is being widely billed as one of the biggest fights in British history. For once, the hyperbole is understandable. For sheer scale, it will be one of the largest crowds ever to watch any bout and the opportunity for Anthony Joshua, a photogenic, amiable, hugely promising Olympic gold medallist, to add the vacant WBA title to his IBF world heavyweight crown will draw interest far beyond the usual fight fraternity.
It could showcase the very best of pugilism, help the sport’s rehabilitation after so much self-inflicted damage and the wretched interregnum featuring Tyson Fury. And yet. And yet.
There is the possibility of something awful too, although it will not take any dire scenario to make me feel conflicted or squeamish however much I try to avoid it (like trying not to think of how that juicy steak ended up on your plate).
‘‘People want to see blood, uh?’’ Joshua once remarked, and who among the 90,000 crowd, or on pay-per-view, can deny it? Of course we do not want to see lasting injury, a man in a wheelchair, but a fearful punch-up, a crunching knockout? The roars will be primal.
When Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao turned the Fight of the Century into one of the Greatest Frauds, dancing around each other for 12 rounds, an injured Pacquiao landing two punches per tedious minute, I know I was one of millions screaming for blood. ‘‘Smack him! Hit him!’’
But I did not like myself for it. I heard myself baying for one man to belt another unconscious and reflected that those instincts could come straight from ancient Rome’s Colosseum – and, even if the rules have changed, should we not have moved beyond this in the past 2000 years?
In the NFL, years of denial about blows to the skull and their devastating long-term effects have given way to an awful, sobering realisation of the damage sustained by so many players.
Boxing is more overdue a proper understanding of brain damage than any sport. The science around prevalence of injury, and occasional death, is very incomplete but there are concerted attempts to fill the many gaps in knowledge.
One of the most comprehensive studies is led by Dr Charles Bernick, a neurologist at the Lou Ruvo Centre for Brain Health in Las Vegas, who began the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study in 2011 and has studied hundreds of fighters from MMA and boxing. Fighters report for MRI scans, computer tests for cognitive function, speech sample analysis, questionnaires regarding mood and impulsivity and much, much more.
But it is not easy when there is a need to study cumulative damage over many years, and especially when head trauma from training is so hard to quantify. ‘‘We do not know what happens in sparring,’’ Bernick says. ‘‘When you ask a fighter if he has ever been knocked out, he’ll say, ‘No.’ ‘Have you ever had concussion?’ ‘No.’ ‘Have you ever gotten your bell rung?’ ‘Oh yeah, that happens all the time.’’’
Supported by the boxing industry, he has established a Fight Exposure Score ‘‘based on the number of fights, fights per year, age, education, and the number of times a fighter has been knocked out, which can predict who is at higher risk of having cognitive impairment’’.
Early findings showed that those who fought over a long period, and regularly, were much more liable to suffer various forms of brain impairment but the scary thing is that studies such as this have so far to run to be comprehensive.
It could take many years because
I heard myself baying for one man to belt another unconscious and reflected that those instincts could come straight from ancient Rome’s Colosseum.
the only true way of diagnosing the extent of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative condition caused by repeated blows, is examining the brain once the athlete is dead.
Boxing is not uniquely dangerous and the fact that a key intention is to batter someone unconscious – however much it is dressed up as the ‘‘sweet science’’ – is probably not sufficient cause for state intervention to protect willing fighters from themselves.
This morning, two prize fighters will be expected to show that bravery in front of a huge audience baying for Wladimir Klitschko to be knocked out by Joshua’s immensely powerful punches causing his brain to move and smash up against the skull in a form of cerebral concussion.
It may prove a thrilling occasion but how many of us will feel that conflict over the sport – and be sure that, in future decades, science will ask ever harder questions of boxing to justify itself, and the damage it inflicts.